Saturday, April 6, 2013

Summary - Episode Eight: “Down the Perimeter / Ringing the Bell…”

Season One, Episode 8: "Down the Perimeter / Ringing the Bell..."

Wherein our heroes found themselves sidetracked, tracking down a cache of goods and treasure that Earl Oswald Locklight provided to the Zwaardgeesten. They obtained great quantities of Ale and planned to provide said ale to the legion laying siege to Manc in order to sow drunkeness among the besiegers Upon reaching the forest where the cache was supposed to be, our heroes found it had taken on a sinister quality and soon encountered Ealisaid, daughter of the Elf Bearach, who told Hinrik the following:

Simon Neville intends to have the Wizard Zordan Capodevin scry out the identity of the “Patriot” who is blackmailing him.Simon’s wealth comes from the Deerhurst Wool, that his father, Albion, obtained the rights to sell. Albion Neville accomplished this by arranging for the dishonor of the Glendower family who originally held Deerhurst county and then persuading the Bosworths to transfer the rights to the Nevilles.

Tryggvi has been unifying the Mountain tribes in order to raid the Free Valleys when war comes, which he thinks will be soon.

Olaf Stangbern has been in the pay of Oswald Locklight and was promised Oswald’s support when he murders his uncle Trggvi. Oswald told Olaf that he could take the Mountain tribes south and take the mountains in the Ashen Kingdom.The Ruby of Elagablus is in the possession of Varius, who leads the Zwardgeesten. Commander Lucian Skaros also seeks the Ruby, which is why he has come to oversee the Seige of Manc personally.That she recognized the sword Hinrik bore as the sword given by her father to Gerard, the hero, after he made a deal with Bearach to "live forever". Gerard took the sword and left the Wyrd Desert instead of taking Ealisaid's hand and living forever in the forest as her husband.

Having completed the first part of her dread father's bargain with Hinrik, Ealisaid disappeared.The company then came across two strange individuals, one a veritable mountain of a man, the other small, pale and sickly, who were digging and searching in the very creek-bed that our heroes had been told the cache was to have been found. Their search having been less than fruitful, these two unlikely looking companions were surprised by our heroes and then variously questioned, suspected, bribed, threatened, given hospitality, interrogated and so forth on the subject of the cache and their allegiance all the while the company gave very little information about their own intents and purposes. Our heroes learned that the companions found out about the cache from a man talking out of his mouth at a nearby inn, the Roasted Rooster. Pushing further, our heroes discovered that neither man wished to yield up any more information until they cracked and the smaller man, referred to as "Alby" by his companion, told our heroes that "The fire was coming that would burn and cleanse". Shortly thereafter Alby and his large companion were permitted to leave, vanishing into the dark night, unafraid, while our heroes made camp and prepared to journey on in the morning, towards their true destination...